the "Lady with the Fan," which is thought
by no less a critic than Senor Beruete to represent the young Francesca
Velazquez, who became the Senora del Mazo when she was only fifteen
years old.

Shortly after his return to Madrid, Velazquez came under the influence
of El Greco, who had died in 1614, and left some wonderful pictures
that may be seen to-day in Toledo. This fact is important, not that
the influence resulted in imitation, but because it was distinctly
inspiring, and Greco is a painter who is coming slowly before the
public. It cannot be doubted that his influence on artists through
Velazquez has been very deep and abiding, particularly in portraiture.

In the years following the return from Italy, Velazquez painted some of
the pictures of the little prince Don Balthasar Carlos, the king's son,
who was born in 1629, and died in 1646, the year of his betrothal to
Mariana of Austria. There are many pictures of this interesting lad
who, had he lived, might have done so much to save his country. The
earliest was painted as soon as Velazquez returned from Italy, and is
at present in Boston. The next in date would seem to be the one in the
Wallace Collection, and following this comes the well-known picture of
Don Balthasar in hunting dress, now in the Prado, the one with the
small greyhound seen on the right, just coming into the canvas. Then
we have the famous picture of the young prince on his spirited
Andalusian pony, which is perhaps the most popular of all; and
succeeding that in the order of the painting comes the portrait that,
in the writer's opinion, is the best of the series. It hangs in the
Imperial Museum in Vienna, and was painted when the prince was about
eleven years old. Doubtless there are other portraits of the ill-fated
boy, whose features seem to suggest that he had inherited from his
mother some of the qualities that his father lacked, and that had he
been spared to succeed his father in 1665, he would have handled
affairs with vigour and intelligence.

In 1638 Philip's daughter Maria Teresa was born, and the history of the
artist's life in Madrid becomes uneventful or lost. Probably on
account of the increasing unrest abroad and the decline of the Spanish
fortunes, Velazquez' earliest patron, the Count of Olivarez, was
disgraced in 1643, the year in which Conde helped to break the power of
Spain at Rocroi.

Although the condition of the Spanish Empire was very unfavourable, and